Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Events

Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute

Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute will host a month-long production lab with youth interns, aged 14-22, from southeastern Kentucky counties. Located in Whitesburg, KY, the organization will provide equipment, training, and mentorship to rural interns who want to explore the realities of limited broadband access in the coalfields. In particular, youth interns will create multi-media pieces that look more closely at the educational and economic impacts we face by our lack of high-speed Internet availability.

The Clay Studio

Claymobile Claymation Learning Labs bring all the equipment necessary to create short stop-motion videos anywhere they are invited. The use of ipad technology and portable sculpting kits can turn any classroom, park, or office space into an animation studio. The program is geared towards working in urban public schools or places where access to technology or arts programming is limited. Students learn about hosting videos online and are invited to use the Claymobile youtube channel as an open and positive place to share the creative works they create both with and outside the program.

The Claymobile Claymation Learning Labs is currently providing six-week claymation courses at the Stepping Stones Scholar program at William Penn Charter School and the Tacony Branch of The Free Library of Philadelphia. The Claymation videos created at these residencies are available for public viewing on our youtube page ClaymobileTCS (http://www.youtube.com/user/CLAYMOBILETCS) . This summer Claymation workshops will also be provided for the general public at Eakins Oval (a local park), where everyone is invited to stop by the Learning Lab pop-up and animate.

Filipino American Human Services, Inc.

Connected LYFE is a digital storytelling project designed to connect young people through their shared experiences. LYFE, (Leading Youth to Find Empowerment) is a Filipino American youth organization and part of FAHSI (Filipino American Human Services, Inc.) based out of Queens, New York that welcomes all young people from all backgrounds. Connected LYFE is summer workshop series that will teach young people how to write, create, and publish their own digital stories. This project encourages young people who may be isolated geographically, generationally, or socially to connect with others to find strength, support, camaraderie and community. Using technology and new media, youth will learn how to write, produce, and share their stories in a way that is compelling, creative, and safe. These stories may be personal narratives, biographies, profile pieces, or journalistic in nature. In addition to creating diverse digital stories, the youth will be contributing to an online space in which their media creations are an entry point to discuss issues that are pertinent to them, such as high school, college admissions, immigration, family, sexuality, and bullying.

While the summer program will consist of media workshops, the participants will become community moderators who care for the online space throughout the year. Further, the youth will select and reach out to other youth organizations around the world and invite them to our discussions. They will create, invite and curate online content. The young people who participate in the summer program will engage in discussions and debates about what is appropriate to share online and who should make those choices. The summer portion of the program will be located in Queens, New York at the Philippine American Community Center. Young people from 14 to 18 are welcome to join us as we make media about our lives and connect!

Catholic Social Services Out of School Time Programs

For years, middle school students from the afterschool programs at St. Martin de Porres in North Philadelphia and DePaul School in Germantown have feuded due to slight differences in socio-economic status. In an effort to bring these youth together in hopes of mending this relationship, the Cyber Cadets Summer Workshop is an anti-bullying, community-building campaign developed and led by the youth who will participate in the program. Over the course of six summer weeks, forty children from 12 to 14 years of age in both of these afterschool programs will work online collaboratively to fight against cyber bullying in their schools. Participants in the Cyber Cadets Summer Workshop will be given student leadership opportunities as they design print materials, web content, and social media components that send an anti-bullying message. In addition, participants from both schools will join together for social activities that focus around team-building activities where youth are able to put anti-bullying efforts into real world practice.

The intention of the Cyber Cadets Summer Workshop is to build a core group of middle school kids who will be devoted to spreading an anti-cyber bullying message to younger students and their peers in an effort to cause change within their communities. This process begins with first educating students in internet safety and then helping them develop strategies for combating cyber dangers, specifically in the area of cyber bullying which is a very realistic threat for many middle school students. Over the course of eight weeks, the Cyber Cadets Summer Workshop will guide middle school kids from two feuding afterschool programs through the phases of identifying the dangers of cyber-bullying, developing an anti-cyber bullying campaign, and becoming empowered to lead their schools and other afterschool programs in this anti-bullying effort; thus unifying these kids in a collaborative, community project.

In the formative weeks of this campaign, kids will vote on student-created logos and slogans that will be the crux of their anti-cyber bullying campaign. This logo and slogan will be present on all campaign materials and club t-shirts that the kids will receive. Communications between the sites will occur through Skype, www.linoit.com and KidBlog.org while kids from both afterschool sites will collaborate online in real-time using Google Docs, www.vistaprint.com, and www.wix.com to create campaign materials. In addition to the design of print materials, a website, and a social media page, kids will also develop an anti-cyber bullying Public Service Announcement video to post on the website.

Along with online collaboration, kids will be challenged to put anti-bullying efforts into real world practice at events where they will interact face-to-face. These events include a “Meet and Greet” Barbecue, a trip to iPlay America, a Scavenger Hunt, and a Dance. In an effort to spread the anti-cyber bullying campaign, kids will wear their club t-shirts to these various events. All of these online collaborations and events will be monitored by group leaders and the Assistant Directors of each afterschool site. Also, parents will be made aware of the program and they must sign permission slips in order for their children to use these collaborative media tools.

As the culminating event for the Cyber Cadets Summer Workshop, all kid-participants will plan and facilitate mini-assemblies to be delivered to the younger students at their afterschool sites; thus offering these middle school students an opportunity to be leaders in their communities. In addition, in order to keep the anti-bullying message fresh and help it spread, kid-participants will also plan and facilitate assemblies in September to be delivered at their respective schools and afterschool programs.

Eyebeam

Located in New York City, Digital Day Camp 2013 (DDC13) is a four-week summer intensive program in arts and technology for teenagers, providing a unique, creative, and hands-on learning experience in gaming, electronics, coding, media, and music. Students will produce final projects that incorporate their new knowledge of hardware, software, and web tools and present these projects to family and friends at a public presentation/reception at Eyebeam, as part of Mozilla’s Maker Party 2013. As students learn to create their projects, they will document their work (using such online tools as Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr and github), and then, under the guidance of their teachers, post in a personal blog, thus also improving their awareness of and comfort with online sharing and appropriate online behavior, promoting a positive online reputation, and clearly defining what kind of data is safe to post.

Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion

Fifty youth from area high schools will come together for a weekend retreat on Aug. 23 – 24 for team building, mentoring training, leadership training, and training in learning how to use digital and social media.

Youth will discuss positive and negative ways to use the internet and social media. They will also brainstorm about ways to use social media (particularly Facebook and YouTube) to address issues that are limiting equity or opportunity in their schools or communities.

GlobalGirl Media

GlobalGirl Media (GGM) develops the authentic voice and media literacy of teenage girls in under-served communities by teaching them to create and share digital journalism designed to ignite civic activism and social change. By linking young women internationally with seasoned reporters, educators and mediamakers, GGM empowers girls to make media that matters, improves media literacy, and encourages the promotion of healthier media messages about girls and women. Currently we have projects in Chicago, Los Angeles, South Africa, and Morocco and are expanding to other countries. To date we have trained 120 GlobalGirl Media Reporters worldwide.

University of Arizona

We will host two workshops for middle-schoolers, during which they will develop LoveMaps for Social Justice using GIS technology. They will also learn about digital activism,create a Facebook page, and begin working on projects (e.g., articles, interviews, videos) for publication at The Feminist Wire, our partner organization. The workshops will include both classroom learning and a walking field trip to the University of Arizona Women’s Plaza of Honor, where the participants will use their GIS units to “map’ locations on the plaza.

Free Library of Philadelphia

Do you love learning, DIY making, and sharing what you do?
Come together and celebrate the maker movement in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection! Apply to show off your stuff at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Maker Celebration on Saturday, August 17, 2013 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Artists, tech enthusiasts, crafters, tinkerers, and creators of all kinds are encouraged to submit an application to exhibit in the lobby of the Parkway Central Library.

50 participants/groups will be selected and given half of an 8-foot table. All 50 selected participants/groups will be awarded with a $50 Visa gift card.

Deadline for entries is 11:59 PM on Monday, August 1, 2013. Apply at celebration.makerjawn.org

In addition to the Maker Celebration, the Free Library will be exhibiting the Connected Messages Project, a 2013 DML 5 Summer Youth Programming project. Connected Messages is a digital and physical mural project that’s being constructed over four weeks by youth in six Free Library locations: McPherson Square Library, Widener Library, Village of Arts and Humanities Hot Spot, IDAAY Hot Spot, Heavenly Hall Hot Spot, and the Parkway Central library.

Read more about the maker movement at the Free Library of Philadelphia on our blog, makerjawn.org!

Rules for exhibition in the Maker Celebration:
No projects with any safety considerations (fire, welders, chemicals) will be allowed. You must bring all of your own equipment (laptop, speakers, etc). You are not allowed to sell or fundraise for your organization or yourself at the Maker Celebration. Questions can be directed to makercelebration@freelibrary.org.

Colorado State University

“Making Equity” is a free event on August 10 at Colorado State University for 4th-8th graders and their families. Planned and co-facilitated with a diverse group of fourth-graders and co-sponsored by the CSU Writing Project and the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, the event will be guided by the principles of making and connected learning. Approximately 100 participants will engage in hands-on activities intended to deepen understanding of the intersections between civic literacies, multimodal practices, and the marginalized history of Latinos in Northern Colorado.

Neighborhood Associates Corporation

Our Community, Our Environment (OCOE) is a 6-day program designed to engage students organized into teams of five who will create a mobile application that increases community awareness and use of local natural resources. The entire process is youth driven and adult guided.

OCOE uses the connected learning approach by supporting participants as they learn about their community and its unique character to become digital ambassadors for their neighbors and the community at large.

Participants will work together to design and publish their own unique blog and mobile application utilizing research, images and video footage they create while in the program. They will learn to express their ideas in clean prose as well as create and deliver presentations based on their experiences throughout the program. Our program model incorporates youth development goals to ensure participants are in an environment that is safe, structured, with a sense of belonging and membership.

OCOE taps into the young persons established use of technology and social media which they currently engage in through social networking, internet usage and school curriculum. Incentives include Chromebooks for the winning app to be judged by a panel of community members and IT professionals.

Jacob Burns Film Center

Reel Change: Community Visions is a collaborative learning experience where students imagine, share & create media that describes a new vision for a community they value. During this interactive workshop, high school students articulate their understanding of community, develop a vision for their neighborhood or issue, and use collaborative mechanisms of the internet to create infographics and advocacy videos to inspire change. Students learn composition, camera work, shooting, editing and data visualization. The workshop also explores best practices of social media, privacy and source acknowledgement. Final documentation will include examples of student work, reflections and lessons learned so that this experience can be shared, strengthened and replicated. The participants are affiliated with the Chappaqua Summer Scholarship Program, a nonprofit that invites students from underserved neighborhoods in the Bronx to spend 4 weeks exploring educational opportunities in our community.

Racquet Up Detroit

The 2013 RU Connected technology camp consists of 8 full days of activities (9am to 2:30pm) spread over a three-week period, starting Wednesday June 26th and culminating on Tuesday July 9th with an Open House to celebrate campers’ learning and hard work. The camp will be held in a classroom space at the Northwest Activities Center on Meyers Road in Detroit, Michigan where Racquet Up Detroit (RUD) has its headquarters. The camp will utilize equipment donated to RUD over the past two years: 14 outdated Dell laptops, a wireless router, a digital projector, and assorted classroom supplies. The Northwest Activities Center is conveniently located for many attendees who live within walking distance or just a short bus or car ride away.

Each day, campers engage in a variety of hands-on activities around the theme of “Deception: Seeking and Speaking the Truth.” These activities will tend to blend the following ingredients: (a) activation and sharing of prior knowledge about a given topic (e.g., advertising, propaganda); (b) online research to find additional information and/or “cases” for the group to discuss and analyze together; (c) time to explore and “play” with a free web tool (e.g., CiteLighter, Screencast-O-Matic, Pixlr); (d) time to remix or create new content to deepen exploration of the day’s topic (e.g., editing a digital photo to deepen discussion about the power of advertisement images); and (e) time to reflect on the day’s activities and articulate emerging insights and new knowledge.

Knowledgeable staff and volunteers will be fully engaged in camp activities, scaffolding group conversations and learning throughout the day. This summer RU Connected will have two primary instructors, two instructional assistants, and two education consultants. Campers will thus be surrounded by positive, knowledgeable mentors eager to answer questions, help solve technology glitches, provide encouragement, and stimulate conversation.

Besides acquiring new knowledge and strategies for using the web in discerning and responsible ways (e.g., learning strategies to evaluate the trustworthiness of unfamiliar websites), campers will tackle two major projects. In Week #1, after studying a number of hoax websites, they will join with a partner and construct a hoax website of their own on a topic of their choosing. In Week #2, they will create publicity materials for a local cause or organization they have researched and consider worthy of their support. Both of these projects will involve applying the skills, strategies, and resources campers have explored starting on Day #1 of the camp.

Two other important features of the RU Connected camp are (a) using video conferencing during lunchtime every day to meet a member of the community whose work connects with the camp’s theme (e.g. a news reporter, a museum curator who does research on forgeries) and (b) training campers to become Tech Mentors (TMs) to their peers for the next school year. Campers who attend all 8 days of the camp and complete all the camp’s projects and daily “challenges” will earn their badge as an official TM for 2013-14.

WNYC Radio

“That Could Be Your Sister” was created by Radio Rookie Temitayo Fagbenle, who has reported extensively on the problem of sexual cyberbullying (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/rookies/articles/radio-rookies/2012/dec/28/sexual-cyberbullying-modern-day-letter/). After her first radio story aired, Temitayo and Radio Rookies created a Facebook page and Twitter handle to educate and spread positive activism around the issue. Now, as part of the Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming, Radio Rookies and Global Kids will host a “That Could Be Your Sister Design Challenge” for 50 NYC teenagers to take the movement one step further to envision a digital tool that would allow for better reporting and awareness of sexual cyberbullying and provide resources and support for victims. Teens will spend a day working in teams to seek solutions for a problem that leaves many girls feeling isolated and alone.

Digital Harbor Foundation

WebSlam is an intensive, two-week long experience to develop real-world skills in web development and then put those skills to work to help others. Through the aid of tech coaches and direct instruction, youth participants (irrespective of prior web development background) learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and PHP through developing for the WordPress platform. As a capstone to the week of learning, students undertake to solve the needs of actual clients (nonprofits) who are in need of web solutions in an intensive hackathon-style “WebSlam.” By intertwining the learning of a new skill set (web development) with a service opportunity (helping a non-profit), students are motivated to learn more and inspired to do civic good with their knowledge.